Monsters in the Sand by David Harris

Author:David Harris [Harris, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-73-049543-7
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2009-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Speed was everything. ‘Sheik, take the men back at the northwest palace and keep clearing out that chamber. Hormuzd, you stay here with me.’

The strip of alabaster that the sheik had exposed became a narrow groove, straight as an arrow, across the top of the mound.

Hormuzd scratched at it with his bare hands. ‘Here!’ he cried. He tugged at a stubborn piece of stone and it became dust and ash in his hands. ‘Oh no – it’s been burnt.’ He shaded his eyes with one hand. ‘But maybe part of the palace escaped the fire.’

Two palaces in one day? ‘You go that way, Hormuzd, and look for the corner, or any connecting wall.’

The top of one wall and then another emerged. Hours passed in a blur, as the two of them unearthed and measured the outlines of room after room. Austen prayed that some of the rooms were still intact. Surely the entire palace hadn’t been reduced to ash?

‘Walls, carvings, at the palace.’ The sheik hobbled towards them, his face glistening with perspiration, his hands waving madly.

Carvings would show so much about the people who lived here. Austen set out on the half-mile run back to the northwest palace. When he reached the trench, his heart was hammering so violently that his body rocked with the thumping pulse.

Never in his wildest dreams had he seen such magnificently carved bas-reliefs. Assyrian soldiers stormed up ladders against a city wall. The defenders hurled down stones and fired arrows at point-blank range. Bodies fell headfirst, the city gates burned and rocks flew overhead from catapults. On a tower-top, a woman cried for mercy – her arms upraised, tearing at the long ringlets of hair that spread down over her shoulders. In the distance, Assyrians led lines of prisoners away to slavery.

Other carvings showed scenes in temples, throne rooms and palace gardens. There was so much to record – too much. It would take him days of drawing just to copy this one room. If only Daguerre’s new invention were capable of making clear images, he could copy a wall in minutes. Imagine having a machine that could trap Nineveh in chemicals! But the Daguerrotypes he’d seen were too hazy to capture the details of these carvings and cuneiforms.

‘Riders coming from the north!’ Hormuzd cried.

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